Malcolm to Christmas Eve dinner for only one real reason: Maddie. She and Malcolm weren’t dating, but they were both clearly attracted to each other, and she knew Maddie would sense that and get all in her mother’s business about it. But she was an expert at deflecting Maddie; she could handle this. Not even Maddie would think there was any future with a man who lived thousands of miles away. Plus, she was on vacation, for God’s sake—everyone did something a little out of character on vacation, didn’t they?
Anyway, whether or not she got another note back from Malcolm today, she was going to see him and go riding with him again tomorrow, then he was going to come to dinner at Sycamore Cottage for Christmas Eve the next day, and she had all of that to look forward to. And after that, she and Maddie had a cozy Christmas Day planned, then they would head to London for a few days before they had to fly home, and she would get to walk by Buckingham Palace and know she’d met the Queen a few days before. She smiled. This vacation was unlike any she’d ever had before.
She glanced at her watch. Julia had said she’d have lunch ready at one, and it was almost that time. She should make her way into the kitchen.
She stood up and winced. How was it that she’d spent less than an hour on that horse, but her whole body hurt? Could she really handle doing it again?
She went through the front hallway on her way to the kitchen, and just as she walked by, James opened the front door.
“James, hello,” a now-familiar voice said. “I have a note for Ms. Vivian Forest, if you would be so kind as to—”
Vivian stepped forward.
“Ms. Vivian Forest is right here,” she said. Had he been delivering the notes to her all morning? She assumed he’d had someone else deliver the notes, but she had no real idea.
“Oh!” he said. He looked adorably confused to see her standing behind James. She smiled at him, and he smiled back.
Oh God, did she look okay? She’d obviously gotten dressed in actual clothes and put on makeup this morning; no matter how nice the Duke and Duchess were, and how much they told her to treat this house as if it was her own, she was still staying in a house with royalty, for God’s sake. She couldn’t walk around braless and without her hair done in a house with royalty. But she hadn’t gotten dressed and put makeup on with the intention of seeing Malcolm right away. And after her accidental jet lag–induced nap, she had no idea what her hair looked like. Plus, she definitely didn’t have lipstick on.
James opened the front door wider and stepped back, so Malcolm had no choice but to come inside.
“I believe that’s for me,” Vivian said, and reached out for the note in his hand.
James faded away into the back of the house.
Malcolm handed the note to her.
“It is,” he said. “I’m sorry to disturb you. If you’re in the middle of something, I can just . . .”
Vivian shook her head.
“No, I wasn’t, but if you’re busy, I can . . .”
She stopped, only because she didn’t know what the end of that sentence was supposed to be. She could what? Go hide away in another room and read her letter and smile at it instead of smiling at him? That’s what she would have done if James had brought her the letter, but now that Malcolm was here in person, she wanted to see him, not just his handwriting on the page.
“Oh no, I have some time, if you wanted to . . .” He also trailed off just like she had.
They looked at each other and smiled, and she made a quick decision.
“I’m just about to have lunch. Would you like to join me?” she asked. “Julia made some sort of soup, and I’m sure it’ll be delicious.” There, she’d done it again. If he was too busy or just didn’t want to, he could say no, but she didn’t want him to walk back to his tiny office at the top of that enormous house; she wanted him with her.
He bit his lip. He was going to say no, wasn’t he?
“As charming as Julia’s soup sounds, I have a better idea. You haven’t seen much of the area yet, other than the Sandringham Estate. Would you like